When we left the Temple of Bloodlines, it was still pretty early in the day. The sky was overcast, and there was now a definite chill in the air, like winter was just around the corner. I had to drop the phantasm I had used to cover the door, but Patricia carried a few actual blocks of stone over from across the plaza to help barricade the heavy gates. I don't know how long its going to take to get used to seeing a woman who has to be in her seventies carrying hundred-pound blocks in her wrinkly arms like they were pillows. Maybe about as long as it takes to get used to seeing a little girl riding a lioness.

I hated to leave my sister behind. I had to keep reminding myself that I couldn't run back to check on her. Tabitha had always been protective of both of us, but especially of Dahlia. Growing up, making sure Dahlia had everything she had needed had been both our jobs. Most families were like that to some extent, but the fact that Dahlia had been blind made it that much more of a priority. Of course, she wasn't technically blind now. The Shrine of Initiation had taken care of that free of charge. Still, Dahlia was still getting used to the idea of using her eyes to navigate the world. She had gotten quite good at getting around with just a cane. This freaky VR world we were in had felt like a prison to me and Tabitha, but to Dahlia, it was her chance to live life to the fullest, the place where she had watched her first sunset.

The ruined city was a pretty bleak sight, even in full daylight. The three of us (well, four if you count the cat) circled around the temple to try and get a trail. It didn't take long for Elizabeth to inform us that Cheeseburger (another thing that's gonna be hard to get used to) had picked up the scent of Tabitha and the others. Or as she put it:

“She thinks three people came this way. One smells a little like Arturo. They all smell dirty. And I think they were bleeding.”

An unnecessary level of detail, I feel. Of course they were dirty, although not compared to these two. Cheeseburger may not mind, but I can smell unwashed Grandma at twenty paces. Once we've established a protective parameter and a proper hospital, the next priority would be getting some showers and laundry service going. As for bleeding, I knew perfectly well that they had been. All three of them had healed up when we found the shrine at the top of the temple (what that place really needs is an elevator), but they had all shed blood in the battle with the vampire monkeys (I swear I will keep calling them that until someone does me the courtesy of laughing).

The lion led us toward the river, where we found a dozen or so fresh corpses. All vampire monkeys, fortunately. Hard to count them when half of them are chopped into bits. I expected Elizabeth to toss her cookies at all the carnage, but she seemed to take it in stride. What a little trooper. Or a budding sociopath, one of the two. Okay, so they won this fight. What did they do next?

The trail led us along the river, toward the remains of stone bridge. There was a wide gap in the bridge, which made me uneasy at first. Kiet and Duy could probably jump it, but I wasn't sure about Tabitha.

“You think they crossed?” I asked, as Cheeseburger sniffed around the bridge.

“I think so.” said Elizabeth. “The tracks lead here, and they lead up to the bridge, and they don't come back.”

Apparently, even Elizabeth didn't feel the need to add: “They either crossed the bridge, or they died trying to cross it.” But it was implied.

“Uhhh, can we cross?” I asked, almost hoping that they would refuse. No such luck. According to Elizabeth, Cheeseburger had used this bridge before, which she demonstrated by running up and leaping the gap with Elizabeth still on her back before Patricia could object. After sniffing around the far side, Elizabeth shouted that all three sets of tracks continued on the far side.

“I really wish we had some rope.” I muttered to Patricia.

“I...should be able to jump that far.” she said. “How about you?”

“I am somewhat less confident.” I admitted. I'm not in the worst shape, but I'd don't have what you'd call an athletic build.

Patricia extended her hand to me. “We'll jump together then. Worse comes to worse, we'll go for a little swim.”

I glanced at the river. The current was pretty strong under the bridge. There wasn't anything sticking out of the water, but I knew the remains of a decent chunk of the bridge were down there somewhere. If worse did come to worse, our “little swim” might be very short and painful. I took her hand, although her grip was so powerful I immediately regretted doing so.

We got a good run going and leaped in unison, but I would be kidding myself if I claimed to provide even a third of the force involved. I wasn't so much jumping as being hauled through the air. We missed the landing and I ended up dangling from Patricia's arm as she effortlessly dragged me upwards. Duy had already shown me the kind of physical strength that this game's system could potentially grant, but it was still a wonder to see it in action. Once we had a chance to catch our breaths, we continued.

“Let's keep our eyes open on this side. I haven't seen any of the flying monsters today, but there are bound to be some this close to the other temple.” said Patricia. I guessed that I had underestimated how much she knew about this area.

“What other temple?” I asked.

“Kumakros told me about it. He might have been lying, but I don't think he had any reason to. He said that something bad had happened at the temple on this side of the city. Let's see...he said it was...Kaaduvaal?

“Corrupted.” supplied Elizabeth. Then she frowned. “What does corrupted mean?”

“Rotten. Gone bad.” I answered. “I'm kinda wondering what that looks like now.”

“Do you think they might have gone there?” asked Patricia.

“They said they were just going to scout around. That temple sounds more like a boss fight, or maybe a dungeon. I don't think they would have done something that dangerous on a whim.”

“Unless they didn't see the danger until it was too late.” suggested Patricia.

“Yeah, Kumakros said that the little flying guys are the weakest version of the monsters that come out of the temple.” said Elizabeth.

“Did he happen to mention anything useful about them? Like, maybe in the way of tactical info?” I asked. I had already guessed the answer, but Elizabeth shook her head anyway.

“Alright. Guess we're playing this by ear then.”

Even without all the warnings, it was pretty clear that we had arrived in the shitty part of town. Most of the structures we passed had been built of wood rather that stone or brick, and they seemed to have decayed much faster than the wooden structures on the southern side of the river. There also weren't any of the small plants poking through the paving that were so ubiquitous back there. I had to wonder what exact effects a corrupted temple might have on the surrounding terrain. I mean, on a scientific level you would expect anything that stopped plants from growing to also stop wood from rotting. You needed living organisms for both processes. Sadly I must accept that in a world of supernatural forces, such reasoning has little merit. The more religious style of magic seems to operate on thematic rules rather than physical ones, and the themes for this area were death and decay. We did our best to stay quiet as we crept through the ruins.

“Have you heard anything?” I asked Elizabeth as quietly as I could.

She shook her head. “Cheeseburger doesn't hear anything. Not even bugs. She still has the trail, but the smell is making it hard for her.”

I sniffed the air. The human sense of smell is a pale shadow of what Cheeseburger was capable of, but I still picked up a faint musty odor that seemed to suffuse the atmosphere. I wondered what I would be able to pick up if I had specialized in Mysticism instead of Occult.

As we turned a corner, Cheeseburger's big head whipped around and she began snarling. I turned to see what had grabbed her attention, and was nearly knocked over by the stench. I had just caught a nosefull of whatever awful shit was stinking up the ruins. We were downwind from something seriously nasty. Cheeseburger led us forward through the fogbank to another collection of dismembered vampire monkeys. They didn't smell great, naturally, but the source of the overpowering stench was definitely a puddle of black ooze that covered a small patch of the road nearby. I drew my shirt up over my mouth and nose to keep from throwing up. Patricia was looking even whiter than usual, but Elizabeth didn't seem to mind at all. Her hand actually descended toward disgusting muck.

“Don't touch that stuff, honey” said Patricia through her hand.

“Why? What is it?” she asked.

“Pure evil. One touch'll turn turn you into a hermit crab.” I helpfully supplied. She stepped back a bit, but didn't laugh. I guess she's never seen that movie.

“There's something in there.” said Patricia, pointing at a mound in the center of the pool.

After grabbing a shaft of rotten wood from a nearby building, we managed retrieve the solid mass from the pool of filth. It appeared to be a mass of cloth, possibly an item of clothing. After poking at it for a while, we managed to retrieve two objects from among the folds. After some cleaning, one turned out to be a silver medallion on a chain. The other was one of Tabitha's arrows, which she had found in the first dungeon.

The medallion was engraved with the image of a woman holding a shield and riding a creature that was half horse and half fish.

Finally, it was my turn to shine. When my Occult skill hit level 5, I took Arcanism as my skill specialization. This essentially allows me to identify any magic item, and also sidestep some inconvenient limitations on them. I had more or less assumed that finding magical items would be a more common occurrence when I selected the specialization, but you can't always get what you want. I closed my hands around the smelly silver disc and focused my mind.

Holy Symbol of Thetis, Goddess of the Sea

Requirements: Mysticism 7, Disciple of Thetis

Powers: +3 to all attempts to Rebuke any being whose alignment is in opposition to Thetis.

All Piety gains increased 10%

This talisman was used to indicate the rank of High Priest in the Cult of Thetis.

“Cool! This thing is actually a magic item. I don't think I can use it though. I could bypass one of the requirements, but not both. Plus, I don't have any kind of Rebuking ability.”

Elizabeth and Patricia starred at me like I had just sprouted an extra head. I remembered that the text was only visible to me. I quickly filled them in.

“It doesn't sound that great.” said Elizabeth, echoing my own thoughts on the matter.

“No, but the fact that's its here ought to tell us something.” I spoke off the top of my head. “Tabitha and the others fought here. They killed the vampire monkeys, but they also fought something else. Something that had this thing at it's center, and melted into this disgusting muck when it died.”

It took a while for Cheeseburger to pick up the scent of Tabitha and the others. Near the pool, the stench was too intense to find anything else. As anticipated, the trail led us deeper into the ruins near the corrupted temple. After a few minutes of following the trail, Elizabeth signaled for us to stop.

“Cheeseburger hears something coming.” she whispered. “It's got four legs, and its big.”

“We need to hide.” I suggested. I motioned them over to the remains of a ruined adobe brick building. Once I had everyone in position, I focused my thoughts on impressing an image onto the world. Soon, I created a new section of the building that looked cohesive with the real structure: a small, concealed area, like a duck blind good enough to fool human eyes. The best part is, I can see perfectly well through my own illusions.

“Don't move.” I whispered. “Don't even breath.”

The others couldn't see what was approaching, but we could all smell it. As it lumbered down the narrow street, it wafted the now-familiar stench of decay, only now it was fresh. The smell was accompanied by a feeling of deep hatred that welled up inside me as it approached. This thing was simply wrong. Its very existence emanated wrongness. And it looked the part.

As Elizabeth had said, it had four legs. They arched upward like the legs of a spider, and ended with huge bird-like talons. The body of the thing was a rough wedge of dark stone, like a chunk of uncut obsidian. Down the entire front of its body ran two interlocking rows of white teeth.

I gritted my teeth and focused all my attention on maintaining my illusion as the loathsome thing quietly strolled past on its bird feet. As it passed us, the back of the monster came into view. Rising out of the reverse side of the rock-like body was what looked like a carving of a human figure. He was made of the same black material as rest of the thing. He was elderly, and wore an elaborate set of robes decorated with jewelry, and he had a tall, pointed hat on his head that made me think of a Catholic bishop. The image stared at the road that the creature had just walked past as the insane set of legs trundled it forward. The sight of him made me feel cold inside. Despite looking like a sculpture, I had no doubt that he was an actual living human being, or at any rate he had once been.

As quietly as I possibly could, I whispered to the others: “He's leaving. He didn't see us.” No sooner were he words out of my mouth, the creature halted. The carved face of the priest was turned so that he seemed to be looking in our direction. He stared for a moment. Then, the figure outstretched a hand, pointed a wizened figure in our direction, and from its mouth came a shriek that sounded more like the whine of a mosquito than anything human.

“Shit! Run!” I shouted. I let the illusion drop and shoved my companions to get them going. Elizabeth screamed almost as loudly as the creature had. Thanks to the creature's awkward set of feet, it couldn't turn around quickly. Patricia grabbed me by the wrist and dragged me down the street as I struggled to keep up. Naturally, Elizabeth could easily outrun either of us mounted on Cheeseburger. We tore down the street as the creature bore down on us.

I didn't know whether the priest-thing had somehow heard my whispers or had some ability to see through my illusions, but this was my fault and I had to do what I could to make up for it. I mentally conjured a set of phantasms. Three large, colorful butterflies manifested in the air behind us. I risked turning to look back to see whether the creature was distracted.

The sight that met me was of a pit of nested circular jaws. The creatures vertical mouth had torn open like a zipper, and behind the first sets of teeth were row upon row of lamprey-like jaws, forming a pit of rotating death that seemed deeper than the size of the thing ought to allow. It ran back and forth, trying catch my butterflies in its mouth. I realized that I had stopped running. The mental strain of maintaining my illusions combined with the mental strain of seeing enough sharp teeth to equip an entire family of sharks had left nothing for my feet to use. I turned back to see that my companions were staring at the thing with expressions of absolute horror on their faces. The monster again trundled itself in a circle until the priest was again visible. It pointed at us as gave its whining call again.

“Kill it!” I was shocked to see Elizabeth's expression of horror and disgust morph into a look of rage. Before I could react, Cheeseburger leapt through the air and pounced on one of the monster's legs as it tried to reposition itself. The leg lifted off the ground and began shaking to try and free itself. As Cheeseburger was hefted upward, the creature tried to get its impressive mouth into play, but she was just too heavy for it. Patricia took advantage, and charged into the fray, seizing another of the creature's legs. If it's movements had been awkward before, now it was struggling to remain upright. It managed to knock Patricia loose, but by that time, Cheeseburger had finished chewing through its tendons. The hideous thing could still walk, but it was nowhere near as fast as it had been. It screamed again, but this time it seemed more pathetic than frightening.

I heard the tell-tale buzz of the vampire monkeys. Apparently those screams of his had not been for nothing. I created more butterfly images, almost forming a canopy of colorful wings above us. Most of the monkeys began trying to kill my illusions, and those that filtered through to us were quickly dispatched by Patricia and Cheeseburger. Finally in position, the priest-thing launched itself toward us, trying desperately to catch us in its huge maw. We scattered ourselves and reformed behind it. It was all I could do to keep up as many illusions as I could. Thanks to my Free Image skill specialization, I could maintain three phantasms without any cost in stamina. I had nine going now, and I felt ready to fall over from exhaustion already. As Cheeseburger swiped a couple more monkeys out of the air, Patricia seized up a chunk of loose flagstone from the road and chucked into the priest's face as it tried to turn around again. The stone shattered itself, but I could see fine cracks forming in its stone facade.

Within a minute, the battle was over. My illusions had been enough to prevent the vampire monkeys from attacking in a swarm, and without that advantage, they were soon picked off. Several tried to attack Patricia only to be bitch-slapped and left to writhe on the ground. The priest's efforts to regain the upper hand resulted in the loss of two more of its legs. Once it was helpless, Patricia simply pounded on the priest with a chunk of masonry until he shattered. We all sat down and tried to regain our breaths as the monster slowly crumbled and melted, until there was nothing left but a puddle of foul-smelling ooze.

Using a piece of lumber, I again fished out a medallion from the remains of the creature. We retreated from the stench and rested in a ruined house nearby.

“That...was just terrible.” said Patricia, when we were somewhat recovered.

“Yeah.” I agreed. I had kinda thought that killing a monster would make me feel good, but all I could think about was how close we had come to being eaten alive. “How many of those things do you think there are?”

“None.” she said firmly. “I hope.”

“I'm sorry.” said Elizabeth. “I shouldn't have attacked it like that. I didn't think.”

“It's alright.” I said. “I think it was our best option at that point. Just try to go with the group next time.”

“Its just...” Elizabeth seemed to struggle to find the right words. “I saw that thing and... I just knew it had to die. Does that make sense?”

Patricia nodded. “I know exactly what you mean. I felt the same way. I just didn't want to live in a world that had that thing in it. It was wrong, somehow.”

I considered all the ways that the creature we had just destroyed could be considered “wrong”. Biologically, aesthetically, morally...hell, the thing was terrible on a simple engineering level. None of it really explained why we had all had such a visceral reaction to its presence. I wondered where Tabitha was now, and if there was any real chance that she was still alive. I sighed.

“I'm sorry I cussed in front of your granddaughter.” I said.

Patricia just stared at me for a moment. “I don't even care.” she announced.

For some reason, Elizabeth started laughing. Patricia and I soon joined in. It seemed like the only sane thing to do.

When we set out again, there were a few snowflakes drifting down. I was starting to wonder what we were going to eating when winter finally arrived for real. Since I had arrived in this world, attacks by monsters and dealing with the fallout of attacks by monsters had absorbed most of my thoughts and energy. I had no idea how we were all supposed to survive in the long term, or whether we would live long enough for it to matter.

Cheeseburger's sense of smell soon became irrelevant to our pursuit. We were nearly to the corrupted temple that was the source of all our immediate problems, and we could see a swarm of vampire monkeys circling one of the buildings closest to it like crows over a dead cow.

“Well, there it is. That's where they went.” I announced.

“That explains why we haven't seen many of those flying things.” said Patricia. “Even that walking obsenity could only call a few of them.”

I nodded. “They must have killed a ton of those things. Then they just kept advancing and killing more, until they were exhausted and got overwhelmed.”

“Do you think they're okay?” asked Elizabeth.

I shrugged. “I think that the monkeys would either descend to feed or disperse if there wasn't someone alive in there. As long as they're hovering and circling like that, I would guess that some, or hopefully all, of the search party is still alive.”

“How do you want to do this? There's way more of them than the three of us can handle.” said Patricia.

It was true. There were dozens of vampire monkeys that I could see from here. Something in there clearly had their attention. I knew their reserves were getting low, but we couldn't just assume that there weren't even worse things waiting in the wings.

“What if we go for the temple, while they're distracted?” suggested Patricia.

“What? What's in the temple?” I felt like there was something important about this situation that I had missed.

“When me and Kumakros reached the main alter at the Temple of Inner Fire, I was able to claim the temple. When I did, all the statues that had been guarding the temple stopped moving. If we claim this temple, we might be able to get rid of all the monsters without having to fight them.” said Patricia. Then she frowned. “Wow. That all made perfect sense to me, but I'm still surprised to hear myself say it.”

“It sounds like you're making a lot of assumptions there. We have no real reason to think that this temple will operate on similar rules to that one.” I said, thinking out loud.

“That's true.” admitted Patricia. “Do we have other options?”

“I could create an illusion to draw the vampire monkeys away. Then, you could slip in and rescue whoever is in there.” I suggested.

“How far could you throw one of those?” she asked, her brow wrinkling even more.

“No further than 10 meters. Come to think of it, I would have to create something pretty big to grab their attention. After that fight, I doubt I could maintain it for very long.”

Patricia shook her head. “That's no good. You'll end up alone, out of energy, with 50 bloodsuckers chasing you down.”

“But we don't really know what's in the temple. We're starting level here. Suppose the temple is set up for a bunch of level 10 characters. We could get slaughtered.”

“Just pick something!” cut in Elizabeth.

“Be patient sweetheart.” said Patricia. “Jumping in without thinking doesn't always go well. If we have time to think, we should think.”

We thought. It just didn't do us any good. “I'm not seeing a better option than going for the temple.” I admitted.

“It's a big risk.” said Patricia. It didn't sound like she was arguing, just stating a fact.

“Yeah.”

Our little party fell silent. Avoiding the swarm of bloodsucking freaks, we headed for the great gates of the corrupted temple.

We snuck up on the entrance as best we could. The temple was on a small hill overlooking the sea. The structure itself seemed to have held up fairly well. It was mostly bricks of polished stone, decorated with huge white marble columns. Above the gates was a beautiful bas-relief sculpture depicting Thetis, a near replica of the image on the two medallions I had collected. We hugged the wall as we approached and slipped inside. The smell that greeted us as we entered was now familiar. To say we had gotten used to it would be an exaggeration. We managed it with only a little dry heaving. The interior was dark, and I regretted that we had no means of producing light. I wanted to shut the gates, but the light coming in from them was all we had to work with.

A long hallway led us forward into the structure. On the walls were elaborate carvings of various sea creatures, some real and some mythical. Actually, in this world they were probably just real. Crabs, sea serpents, sea horses, half-fish chimeras of various kinds were on display. There were holders with burnt-out torches lining the hall. I could just about imagine what the place might have looked like when the torches were lit and worshipers were filing in to pay their respects. I had no idea what the details of their religion might have been. Historically, sea deities were often more feared than loved. The sea was so obviously dangerous and capricious in the eyes of primitive people. In the dim light, the sculptures took on a menacing quality, reminding me that in reality, these animals occupied a dark and cold world where predators were constantly waiting to snap them up.

As we cleared the corridor, we arrived in a large gallery. It was so dark now that the ceiling was scarcely visible. A single window, like the rose window in a gothic cathedral, shone a feeble beam of light down to the center of the room. It seemed to be so filthy that almost no light penetrated it. More statues honoring the creatures of the deep lined every wall. Rows of stone seats filled the sanctuary. Four great marble pillars supported the vaulted ceiling. A 12-foot tall statue of Thetis at the back of the room served as the main attraction.

The smell was worse here. I could think of nothing that I could compare it to. A rotten smell certainly, but what was rotting I couldn't guess. As my eyes slowing adjusted to the dim light, I noticed that the statues in here were much less detailed than the ones in the hallway. Motioning for the others to follow me, I took the side aisle toward the main dais. I didn't want to be in the most well-lit space, in case something was watching us from the shadows. I found a statue of a sea-goat and reached out to examine it with my fingers. Its surface was slimy, as though it had algae covering it. When I pressed harder, the stone crumbled under my fingers, and I felt a soft squish. I drew my fingers away in a hurry. They were coated in black ooze and reeked of decay.

“The stone is rotting.” I whispered.

“Stone doesn't rot.” whispered Elizabeth. I knew that, of course, but someone needed to inform this temple, because here, stone could rot like a dead skunk in the sun.

As we crept toward the dais, the degradation grew more extreme. The mosaic tiles of the floor began cracking and squishing like cockroaches under our feet. Whatever was corrupting this temple, we had to be approaching the epicenter of the effect. I checked out the giant stone pillar that was closest to us. The slime was curling up it's base like vines. It was hanging like a loose tooth, rotten to the core.

“See that pillar?” I whispered. Patricia and Elizabeth nodded.

“Don't touch it. I'm halfway through my architecture degree, and I've played a lot of Jenga. I know when there's one move left in the game. Just because magic exists in this world doesn't mean that physics suddenly doesn't.”

As we finally stepped up to the dais, the steps collapsed under our feet. It was like wading through a foot of raw sewage.

A breathy voice hissed at us from the darkness behind the statue. I listened to the whispers, trying to discern the words.

You have encountered a language you are unfamiliar with. You have 12 Learning points unspent. Do you wish to learn the language “Old Dezzermon”?

Yes No

I was beginning to wonder how we were expected to pick up new languages in this world. I hated to waste my points on a dead language, but I had plenty of points and I really wanted to know what the voice was saying. I selected yes, then chose Fluent when prompted.

“...to the place where it all began, here, upon the altar of Thetis. Here, where we betrayed our goddess in favor of our nation. Here, where we sold our own hearts to the thirsting darkness. In the end, we were also betrayed in turn.”

I got the impression that I had missed the opening of an important speech. The figure of a priest emerged from the shadows. His hat was even more absurdly tall than the one that the four-legged monster priest had been wearing. If that guy had been a bishop, this dude was more like a pope.

“Are you in charge around here?” I asked as clearly as I could. Old Dezzermon had a funny grammatical structure. A word-by-word translation would be something like “This location (here, in the present, generally) be under the power/authority(political, moral) of you (formal), accusative/interrogative case?”

“Me? Nooooo. My fate has already been written. The day I begged my goddess for the salvation of my people, I ceased to be supreme hierophant of this temple. Now, the great thirst below holds sway here, and I cannot choose to defy its dictates.”

“What is he saying?” asked Elizabeth behind me. Patricia shushed her.

“Well what are you talking to us for then?” I asked.

“I often wish to have someone to speak to. It has been so long since any adventurer has been bold enough to enter this befouled sanctum. All I have for company is the thirst, and it only asks for one thing. One thing that can never be.”

“And that is?” I asked, although I already suspected the answer.

“To be satisfied. The thirst could drink the whole ocean, and all things within it, and still my tongue would be as sand in my mouth. I have walked these halls for so long, watching everything I built slowly rot. There is only one word for my situation. Damnation. The wrong I committed is now a part of me, and one day it will be the whole of me. I long for the day when the last of my sapience is extinguished. My lesser brothers have lost theirs, and though they still bring pain and misery to others, they are beyond it themselves. But my sin was far greater, and thus, my penance shall be the longest.”

I was losing patience with his grandiose monologue. I decided to try and get him to the point.

“What sin? What could you you have done that was so bad?” I asked.

“There was a great war in this city. The priests on the far side of the river discovered the means to hide their life-giving flame within great clay bodies. With their strength unmatched, they sought to make themselves the masters of Dezzermon. The war was long, and the suffering great. Our armies were crushed like grapes underfoot. I called out to Thetis to save us, but she was silent. I was desperate, but my will was too strong to concede defeat. I ordered that the prisoners we had collected be brought to the temple. I sacrificed the men first, but when that did not satisfy, the woman came next, then the children. I drowned the children in the blood of their parents. The first kill was hard, but the last was so easy. Thetis turned her back on me in disgust, but the Thirst accepted my sacrifice. This temple became their doorway, the threshold of their realm.”

With that, a stone slab rolled away from the foot of the statue of its own accord. Something was stirring underneath.

“Now, you too shall quench my thirst for a time. How I have longed for the taste of warm, living blood in my mouth. The memory of you will be my companion in the long darkness to come. Do you know what it is, to thirst and never be satisfied?”

Things were climbing up out of the pit below the statue. Slime-covered, skeletal forms. Some of them were very small.

“Elizabeth! Run!” I had never heard Patricia sound angrier. Her voice frightened me more the horde of the undead that was lurching toward me. I turned and bolted for the exit, but the soft ground under my feet seemed to grip me like me like two mushy hands. It was like a nightmare, where the instant you try to run from danger you find that you cannot.

“Do not fear.” said the hissing voice of the hierophant. I turned to look at him. I saw the shriveled remains of what had once been his face. He had no eyes or nose.

“Fear is for those who have hope.” he opened his mouth. I recognized it. Circular jaws, stretching backward into eternity.

I felt strong hands grip my shoulders. With a painful jerk, I was lifted out of my shoes and deposited on the ground in the center of the room.

“You too!” shouted Patricia. I didn't need to be told twice. Elizabeth was already tearing down the hallway toward the entrance. Patricia didn't go with me. I turned to see her strike the great pillar with her wrinkled little fist. With a soft, wet crunch, she broke the outer shell. Black muck sprayed out, painting her instantly from head to toe. The Hierophant was almost on her, and she was blinded. I ran and grabbed her as fast as I could, dragging her away from the monsters and into the hallway. I heard the crash of the pillar collapsing. Then another and another. A wave of black filth splattered over us as we emerged from the temple gates. We continued to run as the temple collapsed behind us.